Defendants were involved in a rollover accident on a New Mexico interstate highway. Another person came to pick them up after they called. The officer on the scene insisted on searching each of the bags that they pulled out of … Continue reading →
D.N.M.: Where search of backpacks in car was unreasonable, each def only had standing as to his own bag
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E.D.Tenn.: Householder had no apparent authority to consent to a search of a metal box she identified as somebody else’s
Householder’s consent did not apply to a search of a metal box the householder said belonged to someone else. “While it is undisputed that the officers had authority to search Cuff’s residence based on her consent, the Court finds that … Continue reading →
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Opinion rejecting joint and several liability for forfeiture
Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion for the unanimous Court in Honeycutt v. United States. Justice Gorsuch did not participate.
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Opinion holding disgorgement to be a penalty for purposes of SEC limitations provision
Justice Sotomayor delivered the opinion for the unanimous Court in Kokesh v. SEC.
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SCOTUS: cert granted in CSLI case; third-party doctrine to be revisited, but how will it turn out?
Carpenter v. United States, 16-402 (granted June 5, 2017) Issue: Whether the warrantless seizure and search of historical cell-phone records revealing the location and movements of a cell-phone user over the course of 127 days is permitted by the Fourth … Continue reading →
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Today's criminal law/procedure cert grant
Issue summary is from ScotusBlog, which also links to papers: Carpenter v. U.S.: Whether the warrantless seizure and search of historical cell-phone records revealing the location and movements of a cell-phone user over the course of 127 days is permitted...
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University of Minnesota Exploring Police Body Cameras
Three University of Minnesota campuses are exploring the possibility of adding body-cameras to their police forces, but questions still remain over how exactly they might be implemented. The University of Minnesota is considering adding body cameras to their police officers on their Twin Cities, Duluth and Morris campuses. Proposed policies on how the body cameras would be used will be heard by the Board of Regents at a meeting this Thursday. A public forum will also to be held prior to their implementation as per a 2016 state law. Considering Pilot Project University spokesman Tim Busse expects the university to get the green light to move forward with body cameras once the forums and council meetings hammer out the specific details. “We’re hoping to do the pilot project in the near future and we’re taking care of this now,” said Tim Busse, a university spokesman. One current proposal that is being considered would allow campus police officers to…
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Deputy AG Rosenstein suggests rising crime justifies prosecutorial shift from Holder Memo to Sessions Memo
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Cellular-site data tracking
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Carpenter v. United States (16-402). The issue is whether the warrantless search and seizure of cell phone records that detail the location and movement of the cell phone user over a period of time is permitted by the Fourth Amendment.In this case, the defendants were charged with nine armed robberies in violation of the Hobbs Act (18 U.S.C. §1951). At trial, the Government introduced the defendants' cell phone records to show that each defendant used his cell phone within 1 1/2 to 2 miles of several locations during the times the robberies occurred. The Government obtained these records pursuant to the Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. §2703(d)), which permits the Government to require disclosure of certain telecommunication records when "specific and articulable facts show that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the content of a…
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Cook County Jail – A Symbol of What’s Wrong With Our Criminal Justice System
Over the weekend I read an article about a 60 minutes episode about Cook County Jail and Sheriff Tom Dart. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is in charge of running Cook County Jail, the largest single-site jail in the United States. After I finished reading the article, I was struck by some of the information contained in the article and wanted to pass along some of the things that I learned. We are used to seeing news stories about inmates who are released from prison after spending years behind bars for a crime they did not commit. We become conditioned to believe that this is all that is wrong with our criminal justice system. But this article about Cook County jail is much more disturbing because it represents a systematic injustice, legal and moral, with our criminal justice system. The current jail population at Cook County Jail is approximately 7,500 prisoners a day. Roughly 70,000 inmates a year pass through Cook County Jail. A very large…
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The Driving While High Conundrum
In the wake of more states legalizing the use and possession of marijuana people are scrambling to come up with a definition of what categorizes “driving while high.” No one favors driving under the influence of marijuana or any other mind-altering drug. The problem becomes what exactly is the definition of driving while high and how do we test for it? In Texas, if you are pulled over by law enforcement due to some overt cause such as weaving or erratic driving, the officer is going to suspect something is up. Currently, law enforcement uses field sobriety tests. The problem is that the equipment law enforcement uses to check for alcohol like a breathalyzer does not work for impairment by other drugs, specifically not for marijuana or THC. The only real solution at this point is to take the driver to the police station or hospital and draw blood. Once police have the blood they can send it off to a lab to test if the person has…
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Stoughton on Terry Frisks
Seth W. Stoughton (University of South Carolina School of Law) has posted Terry v. Ohio and the (Un)Forgettable Frisk (Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This essay is a contribution to a symposium...
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Can Former Felons Get Passports in Utah?
Despite anti-discrimination laws, a prior felony conviction can still make routine parts of life more difficult. Even after a person has paid his or her debt to society in the form of restitution and incarceration, he or she often continues to face discrimination when it comes to employment, housing, and lending. The person may lose their ability to run for public office, and will also be prohibited from purchasing or owning a firearm under state law. In addition to these limitations and restrictions, there is also another, lesser known effect of having a felony record: the way it impacts your ability to travel abroad. Utah criminal attorney Darwin Overson explains how felony passport eligibility laws affect international travel for individuals with previous convictions. Can You Get a Passport and Travel Abroad with a Felony Record? This is a two-part question with a two-part answer. First, there are situations where a criminal record will prevent you from getting a passport.…
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A co-conspirator's forfeiture liability
In Honeycutt v. United States (16-142), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit holding that a co-conspirator cannot be ordered to forfeit conspiracy proceeds did not personally obtain under a theory of joint and severable liability.In this case, the Honeycutt brothers operated a hardware store - Tony owned the store with their father, and Terry was a "salaried employee" who managed sales and inventory. The brothers were warned by law enforcement that a product they carried called "Polar Pure", a iodine based water purification product, contained an ingredient that could be used to manufacture methamphetamine. Despite the warning, the brothers continued to sell large quantities of the product, and over a 3-year period the store grossed more than $400,000 from the sale of more than 20,000 bottles of Polar Pure. The brothers were subsequently indicted for various federal crimes relating to…
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Possession of Child Pornography, Sufficiency of the Evidence and Double Jeopardy
This post examines a recent opinion from the Supreme Court of South Dakota: State v. Linson, 2017 WL 2292160 (2017). And, as courts usually do, the Supreme Courrt begins the opinion by explaining how and why the prosecution arose:On the evening of March 3, 2013, Officers Mertes and Buss were dispatched to Linson's residence to investigate a report of possible child pornography found on a computer. Linson's wife and sister were at the residence when law enforcement arrived. They directed the officers to a computer that required a password to access. When Linson arrived home, he provided the login password so the officers were able to look at web browsing history. After discovering that Linson had searched for pornography using terms associated with child pornography and observing that several websites in the browser's history contained child pornography, the officers decided to seize the computer.Law enforcement performed a forensic analysis on…
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MARBELLA, CULPA O PRETERINTENCIÓN
He estado escuchando los comentarios sobre la muerte de los soldados en la playa “Marbella” sostienen los entrevistados que la negligencia del Mayor se tipifica como “Homicidio culposo”, es bueno entonces diferenciar la CULPA de la PRETERINTENCIÓN y en obsequio a la brevedad y para que la diferencia entre ambos calificativos sea comprendida por los ciudadanos no abogados nada mejor que los ejemplos, veamos: Los conductores de vehículos, en el 99.9999% de los casos cuando salen a trabajar en el Servicio Público o para cuestiones particulares ninguno piensa en matar o lesionar a un peatón, sin embargo de ocurrir un accidente, piense usted amigo en cualquier eventualidad, una mala maniobra, condiciones adversas de la pista, falla mecánica (se vaciaron los frenos) y como consecuencia la muerte de cuatro personas que estuvieron en el lugar o momento equivocado, es posible incluso que el conductor sea exonerado de…
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Fatal pedestrian crash Garwood area of US 95 *request for information *
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 1 Patrol 615 West Wilbur Ave. Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815 (208) 209-8620 Fax (208) 209-8619 For Immediate Release: May 21st, 2017 09:42 PM Please direct questions to the District Office ***request for info***** The Idaho State Police is investigating a fatal pedestrian crash that occurred on May 21st at 9:40 pm in the Garwood area. Velvette Skaggs, age 36, and her husband Patrick Schultz, age 51, from Oklahoma were passing though the area when the crash occurred. Skaggs was pronounced dead at the scene. Skaggs and Shultz were both deaf and driving a rental car with Wyoming license plates. ISP is asking that anyone who saw them in the area in the days before the crash or had contact with them around that time to please call 209-8620. Mfc…
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NAPHTALI WACKS HAS PASSED AWAY
Naphtali Wacks passed away Saturday from injuries he sustained in a criminal hit-and-run event last week. He was buried Sunday. Born In September, 1959, he was 57 years old. Naphtali was part of what made our small courthouse and legal community fascinating and unique. He will be missed. May his name be a blessing and may he rest in peace.Site Feed
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Michigan Lawyers Weekly: Fitbit data, other digital evidence used by prosecution in murder case
Michigan Lawyers Weekly: Fitbit data, other digital evidence used by prosecution in murder case by Nicole Black: This case is particularly interesting since there was so much digital data used by the prosecution to refute the defendant’s version of the … Continue reading →
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Two-Vehicle Injury Crash on Interstate 84 West of Caldwell
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 3 Patrol 700 S. Stratford Dr., Meridian 83642 (208) 846-7550 Fax (208) 846-7520 For Immediate Release: 06/05/2017 at 3:46 p.m. Please direct questions to the District Office On Monday, June 5, 2017, at approximately 12:53 p.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a two-vehicle injury crash, westbound Interstate 84 at milepost 19, 7 miles west of Caldwell. Michael Decker, age 68, of Eagle, ID, was driving westbound in a 2008 Chevrolet pickup in the right lane. Decker moved into the left lane and struck a 2003 Ford SUV driven by a juvenile. The juvenile's vehicle left the roadway, overturned, and came to rest on its wheels in the median. Decker's vehicle drove through the emergency crossover and came to rest near the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84. The juvenile…
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